The collections of the Lunds Universitetsbiblioteket (Lund University Library) in Sweden, have been build since 1671 through donations, purchases and legal deposits. Dealing first and foremost with the Swedish cultural heritage, the Digital Library contains some original and important collections of primary sources available online. To view the documents users must click on the collection’s name, the link to the digital folders follows a brief presentation of the collection.
Description of the Digital Library contents
- The Esaias Tegnér’s correspondence, Letters to and from Esaias Tegnér. "The Swedish poet, Professor of Greek, bishop and politician Esaias Tegnér (1782-1846) was a prolific writer of letters and he has left an extensive correspondence. The collection, reflecting his many interests and activities, consists of 2,772 letters from the period 1801-1846. Among his correspondents are Carl Adolph Agardh, Professor of Botany in Lund, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, chemist and inventor of the modern chemical notation; the authors Fredrika Bremer and Erik Gustaf Geijer, the politician Lars von Engeström, and Tegnér’s muse Martina von Schwerin. The letters to Tegnér are presently arranged by sender, and bound in 13 volumes, in chronological order. The vivid interest in Tegnér and in his colleagues has lead to over-use and to great damage to the collection. A project has conserved, registered, digitised and made the fragile collection of letters accessible online."
- The Eric Gustaf Lidbeck’s correspondence, Letters to and from Eric Gustaf Lidbeck, Linnaeus apostle and professor of Natural History. "Eric Gustaf Lidbeck (1724-1803) was a student at Uppsala University and one of Carl Linnaeus apostles. Lidbeck was Linnaeus only companion and secretary on his travels in Västergötland. Lidbeck became Lecturer in Medicine at Lund University and was from 1752 the head of the Botanical Gardens. After study trips to Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, in 1756 he was appointed Professor of Natural History at Lunds university, a newly established post, and planting director of Skåne. He introduced the growing of potatoes in Skåne and started planting mulberry trees for silk production in Lund. The tree plantations in the local park Lundagård have also been attributed to Lidbeck."
- St. Laurentius Digital Manuscript Library, Medieval manuscripts in the University Library. (To browse, or make an advansed search go directly on the St. Laurentius Digital Manuscript Library home page) . "The nucleus of the collection comes from Lund Cathedral. Among the oldest books are the so-called Necrologium Lundense and the Liber daticus Lundensis vetustior, both from the 12th century. Most of the manuscripts are in Latin but there are also texts in Greek, Syriac, Russian, Flemish, German, French, Danish and Swedish."
- Voices from Ravensbrück, Interviews from 1945-1946 with survivors from the Ravensbrück concentration camp. (original transcriptions may be find directly on the collection's home page). "In the spring of 1945 more than 21,000 former concentration camp prisoners came to the southern parts of Sweden through the Red Cross. Zygmunt £akociñski, Polish lecturer at Lund University, and Sture Bolin, historian, started a project that involved interviewing and documenting the experiences of the former prisoners. The Swedish government financed the project that went on from October 1945 until November 1946 and resulted in more than 500 interviews. The archive and some of the interviews are now accessible on-line."
-The Photographs by Per Bagge. "The well-known photographer Per Bagge's (1866-1936) collection of glass plates consists of ca. 15-20,000 photos. It shows portraits of local people from Lund and Skåne, and also documents the buildings and street life of Lund from the 1890's to the 1930's. Many of these pictures are previously unpublished. Now for the first time these amazing photographs can be shown to the public, using such high resolution that it is possible to make new discoveries in the history of Lund. "